WOOL INDUSTRY. Igl 



producer and consumer of raw material, is therefore fallacious. 

 The producer in every stage of the wool industry is both a pro- 

 ducer and consumer of raw material ; and the occupant of every 

 stage has an equal claim with any other upon the national con- 

 sideration. 



The relations of the occupants of the first stage in the wool 

 industry — that of wool production and its incidents, mutton pro- 

 duction and sheep breeding — to the national economy naturally 

 come first under consideration. Although in this branch of our 

 subject we are peculiarly oppressed by the consciousness of an 

 inability to add so little to what we have elsewhere said, familiar- 

 facts may be more strongly impressed by a new statement. 



Sheep Culture not Sectional. We are first struck by the fact 

 that wool production, with its incidents, unlike the production of 

 any other raw textile material, can be advantageously pursued in 

 some of its forms in every State, — certainly within our own terri- 

 tory. Cotton can be grown only in the South ; silk only in Cali- 

 fornia and Kansas ; but wool-growing is suited to every soil and 

 climate except those of the tropics or extreme north. It would 

 be difficult to find an industry more cosmopolitan, or to which 

 national encouragement can be afforded with less risk of arousing 

 sectional jealousies. 



Cheapening of Animal Food. Chief above all the relations of 

 the wool industry to the national economy are the benefits which 

 it confers upon the State in the supply or cheapening of animal 

 food. European economists manifest grave apprehensions on ac- 

 count of the increasing cost of animal food in the older nations. 

 The savans of the Society of Acclimation in France have for years 

 labored to conquer the prejudices against horse flesh, and have 

 finally succeeded in establishing its regular sale in the markets of 

 Paris. They even regard the seige of Paris in some measure 

 compensated by the fact that its necessities reconciled the Parisian 

 masses to the use of the flesh of dogs, cats, and rats for food. 



Says the French Secretary of Finance, in reply to the allegation 

 that duties on wool will increase the cost of clothing: " No mat- 

 ter : they will encourage the growth of sheep, and diminish the 

 cost of food. Alimentation is mor'e important than vestiture." 



Sheep, from the facility and rapidity with which they are ma- 

 tured, the rapidity of their increase, and their treble use for food, 

 raiments and manure, are the most available means of supplying a 



